Anything that creates separation ain’t gonna heal anything.

Men aren’t the enemy. It’s our own ingrained thoughts and beliefs, and it doesn’t matter where those came from – media, society, whatever. What does matter is taking responsibility for our own shadow sides, doing the hard work on ourselves.

Conflict in groups is representative of conflict within.

Go inside, that’s where the revolution truly begins. Stop the scripts, open up, listen, accept, respond.

A bit more on this…

http://theyogalunchbox.co.nz/2010/12/13/the-one-thing-you-can-be-to-create-positive-change-on-planet-earth/

For a start, our bodies and our sexualities DO belong to Us. At least, in my world they do, because I make it so. And yes, I’ve gone through the typical western woman’s relationship to body – seeing it as something to improve, make better, control, whip into shape… blah blah blah.

But I broke through. And now I love my body. I love food. I love moving. Media doesn’t affect me. Nor does ‘society’s’ attitude. Whatever. Think what you like, say what you like, it ain’t gonna impact my joy at being embodied.

Here’s how I did it.

Yoga. Yep. Yoga. And because this is only meant to be a short comment… here’s a couple of articles I wrote about the process of yoga on the body. Enjoy. KL

http://theyogalunchbox.co.nz/2008/11/17/will-yoga-give-me-a-great-body/

http://theyogalunchbox.co.nz/2008/10/09/how-yoga-will-give-you-a-body-you-love/

Feeling ya – ma homie! If I could start with a very down to earth positive comment for your article.

The war that I have suffered the past ten years, began when I started to be very confident and ask questions or really let’s break it down – challenge. Suffering injustice, discrimination and persecution in a supposedly civilised westernised country = NZ, has opened my eyes, my heart and my soul to the reality on this planet.

Yes, it has been a ‘man’s world’ for many centuries – and with that generation upon generation of our own species – women – have been conditioned to an oppressive, chauvenistic hateful attitude towards women. I find it disgusting that our own mothers are part of our oppression.

Leaders in the feminist movement have to be able to counter the contention, the struggle to be heard, the fustration of past suffering from our fellow feminists. To understand is the key. I just imagine a roomful of kids who have had a bit of a hard life and are all trying to work together, having mini tantrums along the way. So being sensitive to all the issues going on with individuals means reading everyone and psycho-analysing the whole room as quickly as possible, then taking the reins.

The battle is everywhere and the amazing reality of being born a female is that we have a very close bond with the spiritual realm, that which gives life (because obviously we are able to make new life). So if you have developed all your 6 senses, are of extremely high character – you don’t take control.

If feminists can’t work together in a basic meeting, we’re all pretty much f*%*ed – still!

Now for my own little soap box, and I hope not to be accused of being a “troll” or to be shot down in flames, but it occurs to me that many of the problems that women face, men face also. While it is true that men would seem to have advantages in certain areas, to me these are few and far between, as an artist, and a worker, I am in many ways just as disadvantaged, and dismayed by the homogeneous, soulless, short sighted hegemony of dominant mainstream culture, and its worship of self interest, greed and materialism above all else.

While I whole heartedly believe in feminisms right to exist, and the need for women’s rights and issues to be addressed, and that often this is most correctly achieved by women themselves, I am also aware that often a movement, or any group, is unified by the common hatred of a perceived enemy.

In Bushes America, it was the “Axis of Evil”. In feminisms case, it is often that nebulous term, “the patriarchy”. Or the obviously gender discriminatory reference to “men” as obviously that which is seen to negatively impact women.

When I saw the title, “building bridges and why we should bother”, I obviously had hoped that there might be some mention of the other half of the human race. Who come in all shapes and sizes and abilities, and are also oppressed by our MTV generation’s visions of unattainable perfection, all be it to a greater or lesser degree.

The human weakness that is generalisation, effects all intellectual movements, and I would love it if women, having born the brunt of this laziness and still in many ways doing so, could reach out somewhat through feminism, and not lump all of us into the same group.

Until I see some form of this, and I’m sure none of you will care, I will find it hard to relate to feminism. I do read feminist texts, from time to time, in order to keep abreast of current thinking, and although not formally educated, I believe men like myself could make great allies.

It is a dangerous thing to be united by ones animosity towards another group. Surely, and perhaps it is true, feminism should be united more for its concern for women, and humanity in general, than a mistaken perception of half the human race as being responsible of all the worlds ills.

Let us not forget, that women have been happy to profit from the oppression of others.
Aristocratic women of Nazi Germany, were marched through Auschwitz, in their fox coats and fur Stoles, after the war, to witness first hand the utter moral corruptness of the regime they had lived the high life on the back of.

One could argue that they had less power to resist, because they were female, but there were many courageous female resistance fighters, so obviously a choice was made.

One could also question how much power a German soldier had, or anyone else who worked for the regime in order to put food on the table for his or her family.

To me, the enemy is ignorance, and the struggle is the uplifting of humanity, and the raising of the ideal of the importance importance of community over self interest.

I don’t see this as predominantly a gender issue, but an issue of mass media hegemony, and certain powers and political movements that have held too much sway over the generations.

And I am sure they were patriarchal, these political powers, and that it was precisely their separation from women, and the feminine within themselves, that fuelled the madness.

I believe in feminism, and believe it is essential to the betterment of civilisation, but I believe it is time it became more inclusive, and more sisterly, toward its male brothers. I also think its possible that the constant referral to the patriarchy, and demonisation of men, is possibly a symptom of female need to constantly refer to one self in relation to men, in itself a symptom of women being considered only as such for generations. Does anyone not see the irony of this??!!

I suspect, that until feminism grows out of this, it may have a hard time gaining traction with today’s generation of young women, who I think by and large don’t see men as the enemy.

I don’t claim to be an authority on anything, just a thinker, probably a flawed and confused one, any feed back appreciated.

Just my two cents.

Quinn.

These lines mean to me that woman are still silenced and woman’s herstory erased – so we need to understand how our lives have been subjugated by patriarchy – ie how we became the servants of men, but also to find out how our sisters in herstory both past and present had their own autonomy ie control of their own lives. We welcome to help us change this power inbalance but we need to make sure this does not end up with men using this to reinstate their power by once again taking control.

However in post modern outlook diverity is important, so this includes the idea of moving away from binary gender and sexuality (male-female and hetro to homosexual), so that bi, trans and asexual people too (name but a few of the growing affinities people have come to identify with) also have their own voice.

Also that woman from different races are able to tell their own stories of their struggles and how they have fought to regain autonomy in a western european male dominated regime that imposed its idea of the role of woman, family, work and sex, on the majority of the world.